How old: 13 months.
Weight: between 20 and 30 pounds.
Likes:
- Getting on the ground.
- Playing with a scooter that is at daycare; the toughie is she needs someone to hold her on it.
- Calling Guinness the dog up to our bed when she’s getting her bedtime routine.
- Holding my keys and Guinness’ leash {not together}; I have to come up with a diversionary tactic each time I need to take away the keys from her. I think she likes feeling useful and doing what the grown-ups do because if I let her have the keys after I get her out of the car, she’s very eager to swipe them in front of the key pad that lets us into our building.
- Playing with other kids and being around other people; she says “hi” to everyone unless you ask her to in which case it’s a blank stare.
- As of last weekend, strawberries and blackberries; yum!
- Trying to feed herself with a spoon. Or maybe it’s just playing with the spoon she loves.
- Having her teeth brushed, though it might be just the itty bit of toothpaste. We have a little thing I put on my finger with soft bristles on it but I think we’ll get her an actual little toothbrush soon.
- “Curious George” on the TV, though this doesn’t happen very often.
- All sorts of new things…it truly is amazing the new changes we see each week; saying new words, obviously noticing when I changed up the decorations on a wall, asking for “up” when she wants it, and liking our “green” smoothies, to name a few.
Dislikes:
- Transitions; poor thing seems to have a tough time with changing from one activity to the next when we need to, especially if it’s going inside after being outside {we’ve been hanging out in front of our building with a group of other kiddos/moms/dogs after school on nice days and HL digs playing on the ground and watching the big kids run around}. I honestly think it’s just her personality coming out/frustration because she can’t do everything she wants {because she’s one year old}/not being able to communicate well paired with being tired – when are kids not tired?
- Food/eating. I had high hopes for Hanna’s life-long weird eating habits that her pediatrician has always said are just Hanna-being-Hanna to go away and maybe they still will but I’ve battle a baseline of frustration each day regarding our child’s disinterest in eating/drinking. There are some things she likes {see “berries” above} and she loved baby food/baby cereal for a while {but one cannot live forever on purees} but there’s rarely gusto and it’s a constant concern of mine to ensure she’s hydrated and not cranky because she’s hungry. I’ve taken to giving her a pouch of applesauce or something else to eat on the way home because it’s a nice way to get things into her but it also helps with the transition {also, see above} of leaving daycare which was never really something that bothers her up until a week or so ago.
- Green grass! We first noticed this last week when we thought it would be nice to sit on the grass at a park because it was really nice out and little girl clung on tight to either me or Michael, whoever was holding her. She was seemingly really nervous about the grass below our blanket. She also kept motioning to a large bronze tiger nearby and making a kind of upset sound. We tried taking her near it and baby was UNINTERESTED in that bronze lion. I’d like to let her know how great it is she is letting her feelings be known!
Communication:
Hanna seems to be coming up with new words each week. We haven’t been
very good about pushing the Spanish or sign language but we try here and there.
No matter what, though, our child certainly is communicative. She has a very
specific set of noises she makes for things she doesn’t have words for yet; one
for telling us to look at something {it includes a pointing motion}, one for
wanting to nurse {along with pulling down my shirt which is unfortunate if we’re
in mixed company}, and a delightful one for things she doesn’t like {a screech
that definitely isn’t crying and is a sound she’ll repeat until we make things
right again – see “grass” above}. Here are her current words, though obviously
her iterations don’t always sound that clear:
- Ma
- Daaa
- Up
- Bye
- Hai
- Non-verbal head shaking
- Guinness {our dog} {she usually pats the bed or couch or whatever we’re sitting on when she says his name because she’s trying to call him over…when he comes, then she says “haiiiii”}
- Train
- Zee Zee {my grandmother’s dog}
- Kai {a friend at daycare}
- Teeth
- Hush {from “…an old lady who was whispering ‘hush’…” from “Goodnight Moon; she accompanies this with one finger to her mouth}
- Non-verbal “more” {fingers from both hands together} and “bath” {rubbing fists on chest as if scrubbing}
- Uh-oh
- She responds to: Where's Hanna? Where's your: belly button/nose/mouth/eyes? What does the old lady say? {"Hush" with a finger to the mouth}.
Milestones:
So many!
- First ice cream and a taste of an ice just today; both were a hit.
- First cow’s milk and strawberries and honey and all three were also a hit, though the berries the most.
- Walking more and more though she’s still quite shakey; I remember she crawled early on but it took her a long time to get really fast at crawling so I’m wondering if it will be the same for walking.
- Her first birthday and party; both went quite well and baby girl certainly likes her frosting.
- Hanna got her first Easter basket on her second Easter and enjoyed some new shoes as well as her first set of crayons; she needs to be closely supervised with them because she likes to pop them into her mouth still but other than that the drawing portion of her childhood has commenced!
- I’ve started to attempt getting back into running in a more serious manner than my prior dabbling and this means that HL has been logging some good jogging stroller time. She manages pretty well though I sometimes feel bad for the bumps in the road. It’s awesome because we have several local playgrounds on decent running routes and it breaks up these runs but she gets so upset when we leave and needs so much supervision still since she can’t really walk all too well I don’t do the playground routes but hopefully in a few months we can reincorporate them when I’m not working and have more time and HL can move better on her own.
Sleep and eat:
Things got a bit off due to moving/a welcomed slurry of visitors/being
sick/a lax spring-break schedule so HL’s sleep hasn’t been as fabulous as it
could be – she’s been waking once a night between 2 AM and 4 AM and we’re so
pooped we just bring her back to bed with us for a bit. We’re currently on day/night
three of trying to break this habit and hopefully things will get better.
Eating wise, please see above. I’d really like to get our daughter on
mostly if not all “human” food and no more baby food or cereal but that’s still
the quickest way to get food into her so it’s been challenging.
Miscellaneous:
Hanna wears
12 to 18 month sized clothing and could be a size 3 or 4 in diapers though she
is wearing her cloth diapers all the time; they are open to the middle button
length-wise and around her waist there are either three to five columns of
buttons visible.
Hanna Lu has tiny feet and is just fitting into a size 2.
She has two teeth on the bottom and four up top with one more up there maybe trying to poke through.
We are
loving on this girl so much and have the best times with her. Watching her grow
up is a true privilege and we look forward to each day with her!
